May 8-10, 2001 (Wednesday - Thursday)
One Day of Mountain Flying

No one seems to like to fly tandem; as usual, everyone arrived and departed on separate airlines. Peter and Willie arrived on the 8th late at night and had some flying time in the mountains outside of Lima on one of those days; I believe they flew with either Jose or Soren of PeruFly. I don't think we have any photos of those days, though.

The hostel we stayed in, the Hostal El Carmelo in Miraflores, was perfect for what we needed, except for the constant noise from traffic at all hours of the night. It was located two blocks from the ocean and the excellent paragliding launch at Lover's Park.

Willie, thanks for the additional photos and video captures! It was most appreciated as my camera suddenly decided to make half of my photos blurry without letting me know.

The receipt is just to remind me that the exchange rate was approximately 3.5 Soles / US$1.00 in case we get back there any time soon.

We had breakfast in the Marriott where Peter single-handedly cleaned out the day's honey supply for the hotel. Most of the early afternoon was spent in the only rental vehicle we had on the trip - a well-used 4-passenger Toyota truck with a piercing burglar alarm that was not even supposed to work. The business card for the rental company is below in case we need it next time.

As the cloudy weather followed us around on this trip, during the early part of the afternoon, Helen took us around the Lima zoo in the Parque de las Leyendas where each animal looked about as excited as the next one. Unfortunately, almost all of them were held in individual cages and did not have much contact with others. I think we all agreed the American brown bear had it the best with his brand new exhibit, although he doesn't appear to be too thrilled about it in the photo.

Sorry. There is no photo of the baboon rape. We thought about reporting him to zoo security, but we had no proof and were not even sure that we saw it happen as it was so fast. Willie's photo of the elephant is one of the coolest I've seen in awhile; the perspective looks great.

As soon as the clouds started clearing at the zoo we hopped in the truck, headed back to Lover's Park in Miraflores and waited for an hour or so before the sea breeze picked up speed. By 5:00 pm or so we were all in the air for 30-45 minute flights back and forth along the coast. What a great feeling to be flying above the apartment buildings! The wind was perfect but died down rather quickly and dumped Peter, Willie and me on the beach before we could top-land.

We ended up meeting up with Jose for drinks for an hour or so at the restaurant next to the hostel, but our plans for a night on the town fell through. It's probably for the best as we had to get up pretty early.

Peter, Willie and I met up with Chris at the Lima airport for the 6:40 am flight to Cuzco. I was upgraded to first class, because I did the trick for one of the flight attendants. We met up with Franz, our excellent guide for the week, at the airport after being harrassed by two dozen or so cab driver's wanting to take us to the "best hotel" in the area (i.e. the one that gave them the best commission). We waited 30 minutes or so outside the Cuzco airport and drank tea until we could head over to the oxygen supply store (listed on the receipt) to fill up our tanks (which we never got to use!). I also had to get a photo of these very special toilets and showers at a local gas station.

This was the first launch point that Franz pointed out to us on our way to the Hotel Sol y Luna in Urubamba. I never ended up flying this beautiful site, but Chris and Willie flew it later in the week. Definitely, next time though! I think that it is called Mirador de Chinchero which overlooks Chinchero.

These were the incredible views of the Hotel Sol y Luna in Urubamba (in the Sacred Valley of the Incas). Somewhat more expensive than the Hostal El Carmelo, but worth every penny! The grounds, bungalows, dining facilities, food, bar, employees and owners were excellent in every respect. The nightlife left a little bit to be desired, but that is what Cuzco is for!

This was our first view of Cerro Sacro (Sacred Hill), located on the Pampa de Maras plain. This site normally presents paraglider pilots with both excellent ridge flying and thermals in the late morning and afternoon. The ideal time of year for flying is said to be between May and October. However, we had clouds over our heads all week which prevented much thermal generation. By early afternoon of each day, on the other hand, the valley winds would kick in and provide us with some serious ridge lift way out in front of Cerro Sacro.

Even though they are only video captures, I am unbelievably psyched that I have a photo of my wing in flight (the red and black Epsilon 3)... thanks to whoever took the video Peter or Willie. The last photo is of Chris at the end of a flight trying to get his gear off and packed before he is swarmed by the neigborhood kids. Don't ever forget the candy for the kids! At one point while Chris and I were looking the other way one of the kids grabbed the risers after it had been unhooked from the harness, yanked on them and brought Chris's wing up 3/4 of the way before falling down and letting go of it. Quite a shock and sight to see a 40-50 pound kid getting the wing up that quickly and easily! We thought he was going for a ride for a second!

Surprise, surprise! It was cloudy all day. We decided to visit the temple/fortress at Ollantaytambo which is about 15-20 minutes from Urubamba. Per one of the guidebooks, this was the only Inca stronghold ever to have resisted persistent Spanish attacks. Many of the stones were transported from over 6 kilometers away.

On the way back into Urubamba we stopped by the home of one of Franz's friends who breeds and trains Peruvian Paso horses. As opposed to the normal trot of your average North American horse, the Peruvian Paso horse has an inherited gait. Supposedly it is the smoothest riding horses in the world. Next time I'm going for a ride!

That afternoon Willie, Chris, Franz and I flew from Cerro Sacro again while Peter took over as radio operator for the afternoon.

Peter took the early flight back to Lima while we went over to some ruins near Urubamba. On the way to the ruins, we drove through what appeared to be some type of labor march in Urubamba. I don't remember the name of the ruins, though, as I babysat the car with Hernan while Willie, Chris and Franz were guided around the ruins by a local kid with some apparently extensive knowledge of the area. I couldn't believe another kid was out in the field working with those two huge oxen. Amazing!

That afternoon Willie, Chris and Franz flew from Cerro Sacro. Franz tried out my harness, but found it too constricting for him. We continued to find it strange that a hill or mountain named the Sacred Hill (Cerro Sacro) was topped off by numerous radio towers and a communications building.

Views form the bottom of Cerro Sacro of a beatiful lake and glacier-covered mountains. Franz and Chris overlooking the mayhem created by the passing-out of candies to the local kids in the landing zone.

I headed home and grabbed a few moving shots of homes made of the standard adobe bricks and the Perurail train headed up to Machu Picchu.

Willie and Chris headed over to Cuzco to do some sightseeing and shopping for the day and stayed in town that night. Peter and I were bummed as there was probably some great shopping in Cuzco. It's been so long since we got some good shopping and parawaiting in.

Willie and Chris spent most of the day taking the train up to Machu Picchu and observing the ruins; apparently it costs $100-150 all-in to see the ruins, though. Ouch! Willie mentioned that the trip to Machu Picchu would have been better had they had two days as you miss too much on a one day trek.

Willie and Chris got some flight time and finally hit some thermals. Here's a quote from Willie "My last day in Cusco was excellent. The sun came out early and the thermals where juicy. We flew 'El Mirador' which is a canyon looking down on the valley. The wind was fairly strong going up hill so when I launched all was normal for about 2 seconds then PEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE my variometer screamed as I shot up up up. What a rush......It was a bumpy ride in turbulant air. The glider had small collapses on the left then on the right then surge up then down." Sounds like a ride, but definitely good experience.

Willie headed back to Lima in the morning and got 3 hours of coastal ridge flying beginning at about 4:00 pm of the 18th while Chris stayed in Urubamba for a few more days and ended up getting better weather than during the beginning of the week.